sir – The closure of public toilets (“Services threatened”, Western Mail August 9) is atrocious. Can the people who instigate these cuts please tell us, the public, where we are going to find access to toilets.

We will not know where these facilities are to be found. Old people, children, and people with various problems will be confined to their homes or short journeys where they will be able to slip home to use their own facilities.

In this modern day, are old people only allowed to travel or enjoy an outing within reach of their homes?

Public toilets are so important. There should be a lot more of them not fewer.

Mrs ME Griffiths,

Ty-Hapus, The Beeches,

Llandysul

Opportunities on students’ doorsteps

sir – At a time when many young people are receiving their GCSE and A-level results, raising awareness of alternative career routes is more important than ever.

Students are often unaware of other career paths, when in fact, apprenticeships and vocational training are vital to the Welsh economy. Among Welsh businesses 41% are currently experiencing skill gaps within their organisations.

Vocational learning is key to building up vital employment skills, as it allows students to learn on the job, preparing them for working life.

For example, my organisation runs a range of Welsh Government-backed programmes, such as Jobs Growth Wales and we place young people in apprenticeships ranging from foundation through to higher. Apprentices are employed from day one, and have the opportunity to” earn while they learn” .

I urge all young people to research alternative paths and investigate apprenticeships near them – many of our students are surprised at the number of opportunities right on their doorstep!

John Nash

Managing director of TSW Training, a vocational training provider based in Bridgend

Educational needs of the adult population

Sir – I wonder if the Welsh Government can come up with any radical way to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of the adult population in Wales, as clearly there are still many unmet needs.

I have researched the programmes for unemployed people and also people in work who are supposed to have help with improving their skills readily available to them.

In reality there is a huge gulf between what is on offer and the low take-up on such schemes.

Contacting thousands of employers across Wales – small, medium and large – the response by most employers to being asked to inform their staff of the free
one-to-one tuition available was very disappointing indeed.

Perhaps some feared losing staff that could read and write better?

As for unemployed people who can have the same free tuition, sadly the number of people referred by JobCentres to training agencies could be a lot higher.

If the Welsh Assembly is serious about helping as many adults as possible it clearly needs a different approach, with perhaps a widely-advertised national freephone number that can direct learners to their nearest training provider. It is clearly not enough just to leave it up to individual employers and JobCentres.

C Hopper

24 Woodville Rd

Swansea

Who gave you the authority, Carwyn?

Sir – An open letter to First Minister Carwyn Jones:

“Dear Carwyn – I understand that you are a supporter of the “Better Together “ Campaign and your name is frequently mentioned in Scotland by the Unionists, as one of the key political figures who will never agree to “Scotland having the Pound”.

“Representing the Welsh People, you recommend that an Independent Scotland will not have a currency union where they use the UK pound but have some control over monetary policy. Instead they must either use the pound as they and we do today, with no control via the Bank of England, or choose another currency.

“I would like to know if this decision was made among the Labour AMs in Cardiff or is it a party policy requested by the UK Labour Party?

I can see how frustrated you must be at Wales having no input into UK monetary policy, but surely, if the current UK is an equitable union of devolved nations, shouldn’t we have influence with the Bank of England already? Project Fear pretends that Scotland could “lose” the pound. However as a fully convertible international currency anyone can use the pound sterling as their currency.

Countries using major currencies which are not their own, such as Panama using the US dollar or Zimbabwe using our pound, are claimed recently by Alistair Darling to be dangerously reckless.

However, surely, this is our position currently in Wales. Does the Bank of England consult you as First Minister of Wales on fiscal policy at all? Does it give consideration to Mr Mugabe in Zimbabwe?

Both these countries use the pound with no formal power over the central bank in London.

“Scotland is about to democratically chose its own future. What does it say about our own Welsh democracy when our first Minister makes sweeping and rather threatening statements without explanations as to why the Welsh Government has this policy? Surely something so important should have been debated in the Senedd Chamber?

“You clearly believe that the wellbeing of the people of Wales is threatened by the proposed currency union an independent Scotland will request. Please explain to the people of Wales why and how this policy was chosen on our behalf.”

sir – You describe Dr Barry Morgan as Archbishop of Wales (Western Mail, August 5). But the Anglican Church was disestablished 100 years ago in Wales, so there’s no such office. Dr Morgan isn’t my Archbishop. He is “only the Archbishop of members of “the Church in Wales”. (That again is an interesting ecclesiastical self-description.)

Sometimes you seem to give him precedence over denominational leaders in Wales without apparent grounds, and now and then it grates on some of us. Last Easter, for instance, you printed a large photograph of Dr Morgan and an address by him. In the same article you named other denominational leaders, and ideas they had for an Easter message. One was Dr Fiona Gannon, the Chairperson of the Central Committee of the denomination to which I belong, the Union of Welsh Independents. The direction her message would have taken was arguably more timely than Dr Morgan’s, welcome though his was, but the headline was Dr. Morgan’s, and it’s his message that was published. (Morgan – 79 lines, Gannon – 12)

None of us as churches or church leaders have precedence over any other in Wales, and I would hope the Western Mail might try to reflect that.

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